(Dodge/Evasion actually could be much more reliable than many people thought, if built correctly)

Tanking guardians:

Spoiler

Hi, I am Insobyr. Here I want to introduce my IceBite_insert_your_skill_here melee Raider build. Originally my expectation on this build was a cheap starter that able to clear mid-tier maps (T10-T13) fast enough to gather currencies, but it ends up clearing all contents and becoming a reliable boss killer. I am quite happy about it :) This is probably my favorite build so far. I like its all-around, its play style and of course, the freezing and shattering :) So I decide to write something for it.

It's a straightforward build, nothing too hipster in it. The main idea of this post is to showcase what stacking pure flat cold damage is capable of, and to share my experience of exploring other options building defense outside the VP insta-leech meta.

I would prefer calling this post a log rather than a guide. "Guide" sounds like instructions that you have to follow, precisely. No I don't want my post to be like that, it's just a log of this character. But I wish it might help inspire you in some ways on building your own character :)

Pros
1. Able to clear all contents
2. Cheap to start, SSF friendly
3. Very fast mapping, while being a reliable boss killer at the same time.
4. Skill choice is flexible. Basically you can use whatever attack skills you want as long as it works with foil. Conversion doesn't matter much because the main damage source is pure cold.
5. Tanky in an ethical way (facetanking without VP)
6. freezing and shattering.

Cons
1. The dps ceiling is lower than physical-conversion setup at very top end gear.
2. Unable to facetank huge damage over time like Shaper's vortex because no VP.

Gear

Spoiler

Current Gear

Spoiler

This is my current setup with Wild Strike.

For mapping with Frost Blades, I swap my main-hand with Ewar's Mirage, and swap to Fight for Survival in the jewel socket at Duelist area;

For Blade Flurry, swap the off-hand to Doryani's Catalyst (or good rare sceptre) as a stat stick.

* For Frost Blades mapping, I strongly recommend Ewar's Mirage at main-hand, dirt cheap, free chain, making off-screening packs possible. Get one at lv26, then it will carry you to T15 maps.

Ewar's Mirage or Touch of Anguish? My vote to Ewar's. Personally I don't like Touch of Anguish because it disables freeze on crit, the major fun part of this build; And it doesn't have local attack speed which make your whirling blade slower; And it's much more expensive; The claws have higher pdps and crit chance but it doesn't add much to this build because most of the damage are from gems, I don't specifically scale phys damage.

Body Armour Choice

Kintsugi: Best choice against oneshot. As long as you get hit twice within 4 seconds (which is normal when you cap dodge), the amount of EHP it adds is even higher than Kaom's Heart. Since dodge/evasion is not meta so it's dirt cheap too. I would say it's the best body armour for this build.Hyrri's Ire: sweet flat cold damage and 10% dodge/spell dodge, the downside is no life no mitigation. Good choice for mid-tier mapping, but we need the extra EHP when comes to endgame bosses. BTW it's dirt cheap too.Perfect Form: It's good armour in general but doesn't provide too much except 1 or 2 passives and 25% unreserved mana. Not recommended here.The Snowblind Grace: Surprisingly it's better than its upgraded version in this build. Both "25% increased Arctic Armour buff effect" (phys/fire mitigation --> extra EHP) and 10% extra spell dodge are what this build needs.Belly of the Beast: I would say this meta armour is inferior to kinstugi in every possible way when you have high enough dodge/evasion.

High end rings crafting: Damage-wise, the possibly best ring for this build would be Opal Ring crafted with Essence of Horror -- "Adds 4 to 7 Cold Damage per Frenzy Charge" provides twice as much flat cold damage as a T1 prefix when you have 10 charges. This essence is expensive this league so I haven't started my ring crafting yet.

Passive

Spoiler

Check the PoB section to see my current tree.

Ascendancy: Classic Raider, frenzy charge --> phasing

Pantheon

Soul of Arakaali - Herald of Thunder: the combo with Blood Rage and CWDT - IC is too good for non-VP leecher in most of cases. Strongly recommend especially in mapping or fighting strong spell caster bosses like Piety/Shav.

Solaris: Great in Shaper fight if you want to tank his slams. Combining with Tukohama and other source of phys mitigation can let you tank those slams safely even if you fail dodging it (which is highly unlikely tho!)

Tukohama: mostly used with Solaris, reliable mitigation against bosses' huge hits. Use it on endgame boss fights.Yugul: Best choice for mapping. Extra protection against reflect one-shotting yourself. (which is also highly unlikely tho, cuz we don't hit very hard, just very fast)

Some side notes

Spoiler

For this elemental attack damage cluster at the bottom right, the lower two small nodes provide slightly less damage but priceless 10% extra chance to freeze. It adds much more fun especially when leveling.

As mentioned in previous section, this build works with various skills, so the setup could vary based on the skill you use. Basically Ice Bite, added Cold and Ele damage with Atk is the main structure, feel free to try different setups for different skills.

Vaal Grace -- Increased Duration (really good setup for early league mapping when you don't have high dodge)

Leveling

Spoiler

The leveling process is very smooth since its damage is mostly scaled with gem level, it's even SSF friendly. I had a very similar character back in 2.6 Turmoil 2 weeks race SSFHC and made it to lv89 in 3 days. This build even got huge buff in 3.0 (Added Cold got 37% more damage, New Ice Bite introduced)

Tree-wise, start with proj/attack speed then go down to Primal Spirit, continue down to Finesse, then go right, get the phys-to-cold conversion, then go duelist area, then go shadow area, finally go scion life wheel.

leveling tree graphs:

Spoiler

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4
Scion life wheel (or you can go here before going shadow area if you feel like more survivibility at some points.)

Skill-wise, I like to start with Frost Blades at level 1, but it's not for everyone since it requires some skill to handle the namelocking before you get multistrike, you can level with Sunder as well. For support gems, get Added Cold at Act 1, Ele Atk Dmg at Act 2, Ice Bite at Act 3 then you're good to go. For mana reservation, get Herald of Ice/Ash then you're good.

Item-wise, to start with, get 2x Rusted Hatchet, 2x Iron Rings, and a Rustic Sash and you can faceroll Act 1. Remember to pick up higher weapon base in early games even they are white. If you're not in SSF, buy an Ewar's Mirage for 1c at level 26, it's good enough to carry you to level 90 :)

Now do Malachai and Daresso. Or anything with a DoT mechanic. Keep me posted.

Did twinned Core and Colosseum multiple times, so?

I know what you want to say tho, no VP, cannot tank DoT, right? Yes, as I mentioned in the post, this build cannot facetank DoT like Shaper's Vortex. But are these DoTs doable? Sure. Most DoTs in PoE aren't deadly especially when 20% less damage taken on Kintsugi work on them, you have enough time to react and deal with it.

More importantly, I don't take VP not because I don't know how OP it is, just because I want to explore other options building defense outside the boring VP meta, and that's exactly what the main purpose of this post is, as I said at the very beginning.

There's no need to be this offensive, we're here to share and discuss different things. POE is already a super easy game in 2017, no need to try so hard to prove yourself superior than others :) Try to be open-minded.

Finally, "VP is OP", wow, thanks very much for your informative insightful and enlightening input.

I know what you want to say tho, no VP, cannot tank DoT, right? Yes, as I mentioned in the post, this build cannot facetank DoT like Shaper's Vortex. But are these DoTs doable? Sure. Most DoTs in PoE aren't deadly especially when 20% less damage taken on Kintsugi work on them, you have enough time to react and deal with it.

More importantly, I don't take VP not because I don't know how OP it is, just because I want to explore other options building defense outside the boring VP meta, and that's exactly what the main purpose of this post is, as I said at the very beginning.

There's no need to be this offensive, we're here to share and discuss different things. POE is already a super easy game in 2017, no need to try so hard to prove yourself superior than others :) Try to be open-minded.

Finally, "VP is OP", wow, thanks very much for your informative insightful and enlightening input.

You say I'm offensive. You are being sarcastic towards me. All I requested was videos (should have said videos, my bad) with bosses that are known for shitting on Evasion characters and you go on a rant about VP.

Did I mention VP? Did I talk down on you? No. But you did. For whatever reason.

I guess that one time being featured on BotW kinda messed with your ego. Don't let it go to your head.

I know what you want to say tho, no VP, cannot tank DoT, right? Yes, as I mentioned in the post, this build cannot facetank DoT like Shaper's Vortex. But are these DoTs doable? Sure. Most DoTs in PoE aren't deadly especially when 20% less damage taken on Kintsugi work on them, you have enough time to react and deal with it.

More importantly, I don't take VP not because I don't know how OP it is, just because I want to explore other options building defense outside the boring VP meta, and that's exactly what the main purpose of this post is, as I said at the very beginning.

There's no need to be this offensive, we're here to share and discuss different things. POE is already a super easy game in 2017, no need to try so hard to prove yourself superior than others :) Try to be open-minded.

Finally, "VP is OP", wow, thanks very much for your informative insightful and enlightening input.

You say I'm offensive. You are being sarcastic towards me. All I requested was videos (should have said videos, my bad) with bosses that are known for shitting on Evasion characters and you go on a rant about VP.

Did I mention VP? Did I talk down on you? No. But you did. For whatever reason.

I guess that one time being featured on BotW kinda messed with your ego. Don't let it go to your head.

Thanks for making me not interested in checking out any other videos.

Simply leaving a "rofl" but nothing else, if it wasn't meant to be offensive, I don't know what it is.

Why did you talk about evasion when talking about DoTs? The only thing shitting on evasion only is oneshotting, not DoTs. DoTs shits on any builds that cannot recover fast enough. Armour cannot tank DoTs neither; ES without ZO cannot tank DoTs neither; Then how to tank DoTs? Being a slayer, or regen tank, or, VP. We're talking about raider here, and You mentioned DoTs, then it can only lead to one thing, VP. So it was you, who mentioned VP first.

Finally, about the botw thing, rofl, I never thought there're people actually remember the names of those who got featured. I mean, who cares. I don't know why the botw thing got brought up here, but I think it's part of the reasons why you being so offensive here :)

I just want to say thanks for posting your build. After seeing it i decided to give it a try on one of my raider toons i had in standard and the build is alot of fun. I was able to complete tier 14 and 15 maps that i had with no problems at all and no deaths even with unlucky dodge mod on map. I am looking forward to making this build in Harbinger league.